


Whistle (While You Work)

by SunflowerSupreme



Series: PTSD Headcanons [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gamora thinks Peter has Stockholm Syndrome, Gen, It explodes, don't let rocket make tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 01:28:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14727383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunflowerSupreme/pseuds/SunflowerSupreme
Summary: Everything would be fine except that everything and everyone is out to get him. (Everyone, of course, being Rocket and everything being anything that makes a whistling sound).Yondu Week Day One: Red, Music, Ability, Dream, Heart





	Whistle (While You Work)

**Author's Note:**

> So the title comes from Snow White because.... why not?
> 
> Also, this is my submission for Yondu Week day one. The prompts were Red, Music, Ability, Dream, Heart and I (more or less) followed that because music/ability is his whistling and heart is how he controls his arrow and the fact that he actually has one.

The first time, it was an accident. Rocket was messing with the cookstove and the space equivalent of a teapot - not that he was making food with it, he had said something about nitroglycerin - when it let out an ear-piercing whistle.

Peter had been buried in a part of the Milano’s wiring, attempting to extract a tiny Groot who had shimmed inside and fallen out of reach. When he heard the sharp noise he shouted and banged his head on the pipes above him, extracting himself from the wall less than gracefully. “I didn’t do anything!” he yelped out of pure habit wheeling around and expecting to see the red gleam of a Yaka arrow and a sneering blue face. Instead, the face that met his was green and concerned.

Gamora was standing at the table, her eyes wide as she watched him curse and rub his head, angry at himself for having let Yondu get to him. “Peter are you-”

“Fine!” he snapped.

“I am Groot?” the miniature houseplant he had been attempting to rescue had freed himself - because of course, why couldn’t he get himself out? Peter wanted to smack himself. _Don’t nobody need your help boyo_ , Yondu reminded him - and was looking up at him with huge eyes.

“I’m fine buddy,” he muttered, scooping up the plant and placing him on his shoulder. Groot grabbed onto his hair and settled into his collar happily.

 _Sen-ti-ment, eh Petey?_ Sniggered a voice in his head. “Shut up!” Peter hissed. On his shoulder, Groot tugged worriedly at his hair.

“Peter?” Gamora asked, folding her arms across her chest. Telling imaginary people to shut up was apparently NOT helping his attempts to convince his new team that he was Perfectly Sane And Very Capable of Leadership Thank You Very Much. She looked far too worried - did daughters of Thanos know how to pity? - although, if there were about to have a heart to heart about their Unspoken Thing Peter was not planning on stopping her. 

Any hope of their Unspoken Thing becoming a Spoken Thing was shattered as Rocket burst into the room, screaming, “Don’t touch that! It might explode!” At that exact moment, the kettle chose to, well, explode. 

* * *

The second time was less of an accident. Either Gamora had told Rocket about his freak out over the whistling kettle (unlikely) or Rocket had spied on them with the Milano’s security system (more likely) or Groot had innocently babbled about it (most likely). Peter tried not to be angry with the tree, it wasn’t his fault Rocket took things too far.

The whistle had shocked him out of his trance, staring at a bobble he had almost pocketed - although there was no reason to horde shinies so he could bribe Yondu next time he ticked him off (no amount of trinkets would fix the Infinity Stone mess) - but habits were habits and it really was a cute bug-like creature. He nearly knocked over the table in his haste to turn around, automatically fearing the worst and assuming that Yondu had somehow found them and was about to run him through.

 _Capt’n’s gotta teach his men a lesson_.

He didn’t see the arrow, although that didn’t mean it wasn’t there, and Peter was just about to reach for his communicator to tell his crew to _run like hell and don’t look back_ when he heard laughter.

“Did you see his face?” Across the market, under a tree, Rocket slapped his knee and guffawed. Not a fake laugh like what he had done onboard the Elector when presented with 12% of a plan, but an honest to goodness _This Shit Was Too Good_ laugh.

Peter wished he had he own arrow to run him through with.

Drax was also laughing, no doubt this was a part of Rocket’s _teach_ _him what metaphors are before he accidentally offends someone_ plan. Gamora and Groot for their parts looked worried and confused, respectably. He stormed toward his crew, intent on shouting Rocket’s ugly grin off his stupid furry face.

“Quill that was priceless!” he yowled. “Do it again!” Rocket pursed his lips to whistle again, but Peter was already on him, kicking him over and pinning him with his foot.

“That wasn’t funny you stupid Raccoon!” he yelled.

“I’m not a Racoon!”

“I thought I was gonna die!” Peter increased the weight he was putting on Rocket’s chest, not caring how much it hurt.

Gamora, who had apparently been content to let Peter and Rocket shout it out for once, lunged forward. “Peter you’re hurting him!”

“I thought Yondu had found us and was gonna run me through with his arrow!” Passerbys were starting to stop and watch the spectacle: an angry human pinning a rodent with a well-known assassin wrapping her arms around his leg while Mr. Clean watched and a plant cried. _Shit_ , this was not his plan.

“Peter stop!” Gamora shouted.

“And you know what I was gonna do? I was gonna tell your worthless mug to run, you Creepy Little Beast!”

“I am not a Beast!” With that Rocket managed to free himself, either from pure spite or Gamora’s incessant tugging, either way, he was one second short of eating Peter’s face off when a loud sob cut him off.

“I-I a-am Grooooot!”

The Guardians ceased their fight, turning to see Drax attempting to calm the smallest - and youngest - of their number and all arguments were forgotten as he blubbered on about not wanting his friends to kill each other.

“I wasn’t gonna kill him,” Rocket grumbled, “just gonna eat him a bit.”

“Dude!”

“Rocket!” Gamora looked ready to murder them both. 

* * *

When a whistle jerked him out of his sleep, Peter was fairly certain it wasn't Yondu.

If the pirate had managed to board the Milano, sneak past or incapacitate the Guardians, and find Peter then maybe he deserved to kill him.

"It was Yondu, wasn't it?"

"What?" Peter was too groggy to understand what was happening, struggling to sit up and look his friend in the face. Of course, sitting up would have been much easier if Gamora wasn't practically sitting on him, her eyes sharp and certain.

"I have been watching you Quill, and it has become increasingly clear that you are uncomfortable around objects that emit a frequency greater than-"

He cut her off, not wanting to hear that she had analyzed the decibel rating of Yondu's Yaka arrow. "He's gonna come back Gamora. I tricked him out of the biggest hit he's ever seen."

Gamora finally crawled off Peter, allowing him to sit up and attempt to process his thoughts. "You saved millions of people."

He snorted. The day Yondu cared about someone other than himself Peter would eat his walkman. "He's a pirate, Gamora. He doesn't save people, he kidnaps them." He had once accused Yondu of enslaving him, but Yondu had made the difference quite clear by dragging the then 12-year-old to a slave auction and threatening to leave him. “He’s gonna be pissed and if I ever see him again-”

“I will end him.” She sounded so confident as if it truly were that simple.

“I-” he probably should thank her for offering to defend him. If she - or anyone - had made the offer to murder Yondu for him when he was younger he would have taken them up on it in a heartbeat. He had even dreamed of killing Yondu himself at times. But as he grew older he had become less certain that was what he wanted, hence why he had run away instead of murdering Yondu. “I guess.”

“You care for him.” It wasn’t a question, more of an accusation. When Peter didn't immediately respond she pressed, “Why? He hurt you.”

“He-” Peter waved his hand as if meaningless gestures could explain how he was feeling. “He kept me alive.”  

“He threatened to eat you and “kicked the crap” out of you.” She narrowed her eyes. “He was going to kill you in front of me.”

Peter groaned. He was not awake enough for this conversation. “But he wasn’t looking at me.”

“I was not aware that if you do not look at your victims they don’t die.”

“He always looks at people when he’s killing them, especially crew. He couldn’t look at me because-” he waved his arms again. “He had to make a point.” _He didn’t want to kill me_. It was a thought he rarely let himself think because admitting that Yondu never seemed particularly inclined to follow through on his threats opened up a lot more questions.

Gamora seemed to understand what he wasn't saying. “You care for him.”

Peter launched to his feet, voice rising in frustration. “I don’t know!” His voice softened, dropping to a whisper. "Maybe - yes."

She didn’t question him after that, and no one dared to whistle around him. 

* * *

The last time he heard the whistle his heart nearly did stop, not out of terror, but out of relief.

The ship was exploding around them and Peter hadn’t had time to make sure any of his team had gotten out alive. When the whistle sounded above him he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and looked up, seeing Yondu floating above him. “You look like Mary Poppins!” he teased.

Peter was sure he had mentioned Mary Poppins to Yondu before, each time the alien had just brushed it off as _stupid Terran nonsense_. But to his surprise - although, nothing could be more surprising than Yondu showing up to rescue him (except maybe the confession that the cannibalism was a joke) - Yondu looked thoughtful and then called, “Is he cool?”

He? Peter almost pointed out the hilarious part of the joke, that he was comparing Yondu (who was anything but ladylike) to one of the most famous women in history. _Fuck it_. Family bonding only happens once. “Hell yeah, he’s cool.”

“I’m Mary Poppins ya’ll!” Peter laughed and allowed himself to look forward to a future where he could poke fun at Yondu without thinking he was going to be maimed, tortured, eaten or any mix of the three. 

* * *

There wasn’t a next time. Sound doesn’t travel in space and frozen lips cannot whistle.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this and want to read more of my Guardians of the Galaxy PTSD headcanons (I would say Peter Quill PTSD Headcanons, but there is a Stakar and Yondu fic in the works) then subscribe to the PTSD Headcanons Series. Subscribing to this story won't do you any good because I prefer to keep my one-shots separated so I can organize them better.
> 
> I do take prompt requests! Just dump it in a comment! 
> 
> ** "kicked the crap out of me" is technically something Peter says in Volume 2, but I figure he's probably said similar before, which is why I let Gamora quote it.
> 
> ** Yes Yondu did use his arrow after the Mary Poppins scene, but I'm going on the assumption that Peter might not have heard it clearly.
> 
> Follow me on tumblr for more nonsense: [SunflowerSupremes](https://sunflowersupremes.tumblr.com/).


End file.
